#Titanuary #BookReview ‘Four And Twenty Blackbirds’ by Cherie Priest

About the book…

A tale of supernatural horror mixed with Southern Gothic, ‘Four and Twenty Blackbirds‘ centres on Eden Moore, an orphan who is never alone. Who are the three dead women watching her from the shadows? Who is the assassin in the woods? What is the truth about her beloved aunt and the curse that threatens her life?

‘Four And Twenty Blackbirds’ was published in paperback and ebook by Titan in 2012, and introduces Eden Moore, her family history which extends from the Florida Everglades to Tenessee in a wide swathe of Southern Gothic, witchcraft, ghosts and madness.

Eden’s upbringing is far from normal,born as she was to a teen mother who died giving birth to her in a now abandoned asylum, then being raised by her glamorous Aunt Louise(known as Lulu) and Uncle Dave.

Characterised by odd and occasionally violent behaviour from a young age, Eden is followed by 3 sisters who lurk in the background, trying to communicate with her. Her aunt offers no explanation and is unwilling to talk about her childhood or family tree, until after two attempts at her life, Eden decides to take matters into her own hands.

The deeper she digs, the more sinister and twisted snippets of her life are revealed until a deadly showdown in a swamp brings more clarity than Eden could have bargained for…

In this series opener, not only does Cherie Priest have to create enough interest in the protagonist to sustain the reader, she has to set the scene for the next in the series and I absolutely think that she nails this with aplomb.

The reader gets enough information about Eden, Lulu and their shared ancestry but not all questions are answered by the final page, leaving you desperate to leap straight into the second novel, ‘Wings To The Kingdom’, but I am going to leave it a little,as there are currently 3 books in the series and I don’t know if there will be any more.

Not keen to dig around on the web about this because, as you know, I hate spoilers, but I want to prolong the anticipation a while longer!

Sinister, spooky and with some wonderful set pieces – I am thinking of Eden’s art projects at school, and her summer camp experience in particular -this is a novel drenched in supernatural goings on with a new twist. I found it unpredictable, engaging, and it presents a whole new mythology that I could totally get behind.

It’s also currently free on Kindle Unlimited which is available as a month’s free trial and then £7.99 a month for as many books as you can read, a maximum of 10 at a time (plus magazines)

I have nothing to do with promoting Amazon, but recommend this as a great stepping on point to try Cherie’s work and then she has a gloriously full back catalogue to indulge in, so it would be silly not to mention it!

About the author…

Cherie Priest is the author of two dozen books and novellas, most recently ‘The Toll’, ‘The Family Plot’, ‘The Agony House’, and the Philip K. Dick Award nominee ‘Maplecroft’; but she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with ‘Boneshaker’.

Her works have been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, and have won the Locus Award (among others) – and over the years, they’ve been translated into nine languages in eleven countries. Cherie lives in Seattle, WA, with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.

Links-http://www.cheriepriest.com/

Twitter @TitanBooks @cmpriest

Amazon Kindle Purchase Link-https://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Twenty-Blackbirds-Cherie-Priest-ebook/dp/B00MLDUC3O/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=cherie+priest&qid=1578605028&s=books&sr=1-5